Hello Again Crew fans!
A lot has gone done for the Black and Gold recently. We have six more points, two national camp call-ups, and a new French guy on our team. Most importantly, we now sit at 4-0-2, with 14 points and the Crew hasn’t even playing to what they are capable of.
Six Points:
New England
The Crew played the New England Revolution on May 8th in one of the most frustrating matches I’ve ever been to, which made the end result that much better. I can’t remember the last time the four goals had been scored at half time in Crew stadium, with the result being a 2-2 tie.
The 8th was a weird game for the Crew. It featured many odd occurrences throughout the game. William Hesmer had a shot that went right through his arms, it appeared, and New England was up early 1-0. The Crew then answered with 2 goals, a great finish from Eddie Gaven and then an own goal on New England. The Revolution followed right back after a miss-clear and having a few defenders out of position.
The second half was just as frustrating; featuring what seemed like a million scoring chances, all failing at the end. Close headers, an unbelievable back heal kick that hit off the post, lame shots on good chances, etc. It just felt like the Crew was destined for a tie, which was extremely frustrating to watch. To add in to the oddness of this game, Sergio Hererra made his first appearance with the Crew, and almost immediately factored into the game winning goal by Robbie Rogers in first minutes of stoppage time. It was one of the most refreshing three points I’ve seen the Crew earn.
Chivas
On Saturday the Crew took on Chivas USA, and for the first time in a while, I was feeling lucky if we were to take a point at home. After playing what I considered their best soccer all season in the second half against New England, I figured the Crew could play off momentum and light up the scoreboard against Chivas. I don’t think that the Crew has had a dominating win all season yet, and I was hoping the game against Chivas would provide that.
Well, it sure didn’t. The Crew didn’t play Crew soccer. I saw the yellow team out there, but it felt like imposters wearing Crew Jerseys. The first half of soccer wasn’t horrible and in the second half, Chivas technically didn’t score, but that is all the compliments I can through at the Crew.
Gino Padula had an up and down game, his downs were pretty down, but his highs were real high. Gino saved two goals within a few minutes from amazing goal line plays. Despite his constant give-aways and watching him get beat a few times on some plays, he has to be my Man of the Match. No one really else sticks out in my mind. Moffat had a couple of decent shots on goal, Rogers had a few runs and a few nice blocks by the defence…but the Crew couldn’t maintain possession for anything.
Yet something special happens for the Crew in the last few minutes of halves this year. From the goal in Seattle at the end of the first half, to the winner against the Revolutions and now, the game against Chivas can be added to the mix.
Chard Marshall was pulled down in the box off a free kick and the ref, unbelievably, made a good call and called the PK. I say unbelievably because the ref didn’t issue a card on an obvious hand ball on Chivas in the first half. It was such an atrocious non-card call that it just makes me again question the calibre of refs in MLS. Let’s just say there are a few on my list who I think couldn’t ref a high school game.
Either way, the legend. Mr. #7 scored on the penalty, and the Crew, despite playing pretty bad soccer, got the all important three points.
Two call ups
I want to spend this portion of the post congratulating Robbie Rogers and Chad Marshall for making it to the preliminary 30 man roster of the U.S. It’s a great achievement to receive for the two Crew players and it should make any Crew fan proud.
That being said, I think at best only one makes the actual final 23 man roster, and I wouldn’t be surprised if neither make it. This does provide us some room to see more of our reserves and back ups in the coming weeks while Robbie and Chad are at the U.S. Camp. Perhaps Jed Zayner can get some playing time, and maybe we can see Ekpo start a game (though I still prefer him as a sub).
New Face
The Crew announced the signing of French Midfielder Leandre Griffit. Griffit has been around with a few teams in Europe and has some valuable experience. He has looked good in scrimmages for the Crew this year and hopefully that will translate into actual game experience. With the upcoming brutal schedule, and the possibility of injuries, I think Crew fans will see quite a bit of Griffit this season.
That’s all for now, I’ll post soon with an analysis of the upcoming schedule for the Crew, in what will be their toughest stretch for a while.
Tags:
chivas usa,
columbus crew,
eddie gaven,
gino padula,
guillermo barros schelotto,
leandre griffit,
new england revolution,
robbie rogers,
william hesmer
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